Hi,

I have a question for the experts, about color variation in eastern garters. I live in southwest Ohio. I see eastern garters frequently on my property and I've certainly been impressed with how much they can vary in color and appearance. Most of the ones I see on my property are brown and gray and often with some small stripes of blue which can range from steel grey to bright turqoise blue. Sometimes I will see some with red stripes but these seem less common on my property.

Yesterday, I found a young garter that had the most stunning orange stripe. The underside of this snake is a beautiful yellow green color and running down the sides is the orange stripe. Up close it is the brightest orange like the color of a bright neon orange highlighter pen. Not red, but brilliant orange. I've never seen anything like it. Is this unusual? Anyone have pictures with such bright orange stripes?

Sorry, no pics. I actually caught the snake and put it in a tank. I wanted to do some studying to see if this was unusual before I decide to either keep it or release it.